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PETER LUCAS: Berwick says Medicare for all is the way to go

Sentinel & Enterprise

Updated:
04/22/2014 07:54:37 AM EDT

Former Medicare Administrator Dr. Donald Berwick is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor of Massachusetts. (AP Photo/J. David Ake)

Hardly had President Obama declared Obamacare a smashing success at a White House press conference last week than U.S. Rep. Steven Lynch said the program will likely cost the Democrats both the House and the Senate in the 2014 congressional elections.

The South Boston Democrat, the only member of the Massachusetts congressional delegation to vote against passage of Obamacare, told the Boston Herald that because of Obamacare, "We will lose seats in the House," which Republicans already control. He added, "And I think we may lose the Senate," which is currently run by the Democrats.

While some fellow Democrats may agree with Lynch's dismal outlook, that view is certainly not shared by Donald Berwick, one of five Democrats running for governor in Massachusetts.

As a matter of fact, it is the opposite. Berwick, 68, a pediatrician and health-care executive, not only champions Obamacare, but he thinks it does not go far enough. He wants "Medicare for all," a single-payer health-care system run by the government that covers everybody and everything.

Only he does not call it socialized medicine.

"Health care is a human right, period," Berwick said.

In a guest column for the Springfield Republican, Berwick, a confirmed progressive, put it this way: "Massachusetts was the first state in the nation to make health care a human right. Now it's time to lead again -- toward a single-payer health care -- Medicare for all."

Berwick is running for office for the first time.

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He is a former administrator for Medicare and Medicaid Services in the Obama administration. A recess appointment, Berwick resigned after 18 months when it appeared he could not win Senate confirmation.

Berwick lives in Newton and holds three degrees from Harvard. He is also president and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, a not-for-profit organization that helps improvement of health care across the world.

Berwick is confident he can win the necessary 15 percent of the delegate vote on the first ballot at the Democrat Party convention June 14 to win a place on the September primary ballot.

It is possible -- but highly unlikely -- that all five candidates could win a place on the primary ballot. Berwick sees support coming from many left-wing liberals and progressives who dominate the party's conventions. "We will get over 15 percent," he said.

The Democrat gubernatorial race has shaped up as a two-tiered race. In the top tier are frontrunners Attorney General Martha Coakley and state Treasurer Steve Grossman. The three candidates in the second tier are newcomers Berwick, Joe Avellone, a fellow physician and former Wellesley selectman, and Juliette Kayyem, a former state and federal homeland security official.

While Coakley and Grossman are expected to run against one another in the primary no matter who wins the convention, a third or fourth candidate, like Berwick or one of the others, could reshape the race.

Berwick concedes that politically he is coming out of nowhere. So he takes comfort in the fact that both Gov. Deval Patrick and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren both also came out of nowhere and were elected in their first run for public office.

It should be noted that both Avellone and Kayyem, first-time statewide candidates, can take comfort in the same thing.

Despite his strong push on health care, Berwick insists that he is far from a one-issue candidate, that he is concerned with poverty, hunger, homelessness, education, transportation and so on.

But somehow it is all tied into health care.

In a speech at Boston University last week, Berwick put it this way: "Health care is now 42 percent of our state budget, and has gone up 59 percent in the past decade. Without reform -- serious reform, bold reform -- health care in Massachusetts will continue to erode possibilities and investments in the public and private sector alike."

Like Obama, Berwick is proposing better health care at lower costs, even though that proposal is not working out so well for Obama, according to public opinion polls.

How Berwick and his message will be received at the convention is open to speculation. My guess is that the leftist delegates -- most of whom believe that government has all the answers -- will receive him warmly.

But the best health-care solution of all is just don't get sick.

Correction: Mark Fisher, the GOP's tea party-aligned candidate for governor, was misnamed in Friday's column. I apologize for the error.

Peter Lucas' political column appears Tuesday and Friday. Email him at luke1825@aol.com.

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